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Tennessee Basketball: SEC Coaches are dropping like flies, is it the Barnes Effect?

By Colton Pickard

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 10: Rick Barnes the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers gives instructions to his team during the 67-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 10, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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Rick Barnes is in his fourth year with Tennessee as they are prepping for the Sweet Sixteen while other young SEC coaches are looking for another job.

Regardless of how good a coach is, if he’s not making it out of the first weekend in the NCAA tournament, there’s a good chance he, will quickly be on the hot seat in the SEC. Some head coaches have even seen this as they have been let go after underachieving in the postseason. The SEC has four teams in the Sweet Sixteen this year, and two of those teams are Auburn and Tennessee, whose coaches have been at their program for five years or less.

Last year, Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy “stepped down” after 12 seasons as the Rebels/Black Bears/Land Sharks looked to figure something out without Kennedy on the sidelines after they declined to extend him in the 2016-17 season after he had just two seasons where he didn’t reach the 20 win mark.

Billy Kennedy, unlike Andy Kennedy, the Texas A&M coach had just three seasons with at least 20 wins in eight years. The underachieving coach averaged 18 wins per year with a regular season championship in 2016.

Avery Johnson at Alabama who had one 20 win season in his four years in Tuscaloosa. Johnson went 1-1 in the NCAA tournament and never reached Sunday in the SEC tournament. Alabama has been spoiled by their football program, so if coaches aren’t getting it done in the first few years there expect them to be rotated out fairly quickly.

Bryce Drew lost every SEC game in the 2018-19 season which was enough for Vanderbilt to let him go. The successful Valparaiso coach cleaned out his desk just three years after he first took the job. Ever since winning 19 games and making an appearance in the SEC Semifinal game and the NCAA tournament in his first year, Vanderbilt basketball went downhill quickly. Drew set himself up to get fired with just 12 wins in year two and nine wins in year three.

Athletic Directors are seeing the success of guys like Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes and are becoming impatient with their coaches in the early stages. Bruce Pearl is in his fifth season, just two wins away from his second 30 win season as a head coach. Rick Barnes has already won 31 games in just his fourth season with the Vols and held down the number one spot in the country for a month.

We’ve seen guys like Andy Kennedy and Arkansas’ head coach Mike Anderson end up without a job at the end of the season after having fairly successful seasons. Why are these guys getting pushed out after having multiple 20-win seasons? Is it because they were unable to get it done in the postseason or were the athletic directors not satisfied with their work when comparing their resume to Rick Barnes?

Is Barnes’ success hurting other SEC coaches chances at having a long-term job?

With Rick Barnes being so successful in just his fourth-year program expectations for other schools will rise. When a coach doesn’t win an SEC Championship, tournament or regular season, in the first three or four years, they might get fired, and that process could continue to repeat itself until the school finds their guy.

LSU thought they had found their guy in Will Wade until just a few weeks ago when he was caught on wiretap saying he paid a player. Wade won 25 games this past season and won the SEC Regular Season Championship, but all that could be vacated and the Wade name could be tainted for years to come. This shows that SEC coaches could be under so much pressure to win quickly like Rick Barnes they are willing to cheat and chance their job.

Rick Barnes is the only Tennessee coach in the past two decades to have at least a .500 record against all of Tennessee’s rivals. Barnes has gone 4-1 against Florida, 5-4 against Kentucky, 6-3 against Vanderbilt, 2-2 against Alabama and 1-0 against Memphis. Maybe SEC Athletic Directors are tired of losing to Barnes as they try to find coaches that can consistently beat the Vols.

The Rick Barnes effect is in full force as the Vols prep for the Sweet Sixteen along with three other SEC schools as lower tier SEC schools continue looking for their next coach in hopes to see similar success that Tennessee has had the past few years. It’s nice to finally be on the other side of coaching searches.

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